The Belzec Death Camp

by Chris Webb

  One of these Gypsies, Martha W.—a Sinti woman, born in Kiel, Germany, in 1921—was deported to Belzec together with her two children, her mother, and her brother. After the war she recounted her story in an interview with Karin Guth, which is incredibly moving and heart-rending:

  In May, I think it was 16 May 1940, they came for us and brought us to the Fruchtschuppen (Fruit Warehouse) in the harbour of Hamburg. My memory is not that good anymore. I only know that a lot of people were in the warehouse. It was like being in an ant-hill, so many people were running around.

  We were registered and those above the age of fourteen received a number on the arm, this was not tattooed, as was later the case in Auschwitz, but stamped in ink. The number faded after a few days. I cannot remember how many days we were in the warehouse. Not many perhaps three days. Quite nearby, only some steps away, we were ordered to enter goods wagons at the Hannoverscher Station.

  There was an awful confusion, there being hundreds of people. We were told we were being transported to Poland, where we would receive a nice little house. And they told me that my father was already there, but we were deceived.

  When we arrived at our destination SS surrounded the train. They were there at our arrival and drove us out of the wagons. Policeman had accompanied us, two to a wagon (probably within the brakers cabin at the rear of some wagons).

  We naturally did not travel without a guard. They knew we would have otherwise simply left the train and escaped. We would have done this had we had the chance. The policemen, who had escorted us, appeared thoroughly sheepish, when they saw the SS and heard the SS commandant, a small man standing there with a whip in his hand; immediately shouting, ‘if you don’t obey the orders!’ Oh dear and the rest he said. He called us dogs and we were treated as such. That was so awful. The policemen from Hamburg stood there speechless. I presume they hadn’t known what we were to experience in Belzec.

  Then we had to walk to a large barn, that was more a very large shed. There was only old straw on the floor. We had to enter this shed , SS guards were posted outside. Today I no longer remember how long we were in that Belzec camp. It was summer when we arrived. I think we were there for some weeks . It was awful there. One could not wash oneself, there were no toilets. We were all crammed together.

  We were immediately set to work in a work column. We had to dig tank ditches. There were many Jews in Belzec too. They were housed in the same shed as us and also worked in the column. They usually only remained for some weeks, then they were transported from Belzec to somewhere else.

  The food was awful. A Roma was detailed to cook for us all. The SS shot crows and ravens and simply threw them into the large pot. The man didn’t want to cook the birds without first plucking the feathers. They beat him so badly that the blood ran out the bottom of his trousers.

  One day those of us with children had to line up because the children were to receive something special to eat. I had two children. My daughter was two and my son was one-year old. Each was given a bowl containing milk with bread crumbled in it. Or so it appeared.

  This was especially for the children. Well, one child after the other died over the following days. There was such lamenting, lamenting and crying. Shortly after having eaten the children were unable to breathe anymore, they asphyxiated. My little boy died first. Someone woke me in the morning. I was woken because the chid had kicked and the person wanted to cover him again. So I awoke and went to pick him up. He was already quite stiff.

  I was devastated with grief and I didn’t know what to do. My cousin, the sister of Mrs B. lifted him and a big clot of pus came out of his throat. All the children experienced this. My two year old daughter died in the same way the next day. They had been poisoned.

  One day we had to enter cattle wagons again, in Belzec. There was just a bare floor. There were no windows, only air slits, high up. There were no toilet facilities. We had to enter that train, not knowing what to expect. Nobody told us anything.

  We were taken to Krychow. We travelled through the night in this cattle wagon. When we arrived at the station, horse-drawn vehicles awaited us that took us to the camp. It was a former Polish prison, far away from the station. We were guarded by men wearing a black uniform. They were Volksdeutsche. These Volksdeutsche and SS were everywhere.[40]

  Chapter III

  Construction of the Death Camp

  November 1941–February 1942

  The Belzec death camp was built by the SS Zentralbauverwaltung (Central Building Administration) in the Lublin district. Work commenced on November 1, 1941, under the stewardship of SS-Oberscharführer Josef Oberhauser. A number of local villagers were employed in the construction of the death camp, and after the war provided statements about its genesis. One of these was Edward Ferens, a 36-year-old locksmith, who testified on March 20, 1946, in Belzec:

  In the autumn of 1941 I worked for seven weeks on the construction of the barracks in Belzec which, it later transpired were used in the exterminiation of the Jews. I worked as an ordinary labourer and was forced into this work by the municipal office in Belzec.

  During this time six barracks were built. Later more barracks were put up, but by then I was no longer employed on their construction. I remember that we put up a barracks which was especially big, beside a much smaller one; the two were connected by a corridor. This small barracks was well-built and a narrow-gauge railway laid which ran from this barracks across the field.

  When we asked the Germans what this barracks was for, they only laughed and said nothing. I remember that the building of the camp was directed by a young German; he was about twenty years old, slim, blond, and allegedlly came from the Kattowitz area. This German had the building plans and often went around with them among the labourers working in the camp area. I asked him what these barracks were being built for? As an answer, the German only laughed ... he only spoke weak Polish. Besides this young German, there were no other German specialists involved in the building work.[41]

  Stanislaw Kozak, another Polish local worker, provided another key eyewitness account of the building of the death camp. He testified in Belzec on October 14, 1945, and his detailed statement on the first gassing facilities should be viewed as the definitive account:

  There arrived in Belzec in October 1941, 3 SS men who demanded 20 workers from the Belzec community. The municipal office appointed 20 inhabitants of Belzec as workers—I was one of them. The Germans selected the area to the South-East of the railway station where a siding ended.

  Alongside the siding ran the railway to Lemberg. We began work on 1 November 1941 with the building of barracks at the end of the siding. One barrack—which stood right next to the siding—was 50 metres long and 12.5 metres wide. It was a waiting room for the Jews. The second barrack 25 metres long and 12.5 metres wide—was for the Jews appointed to bathe in.

  Near this barracks we had built a third barracks which was 12 metres long and 8 metres wide. This barrack was divided into three parts by wooden walls—each part being 4 metres wide and 8 metres long. The height of each section was 2 metres. The inner walls of this barracks were so constructed that we nailed planks to them and filled the empty space between them with sand. The interior walls of this barrack were covered with pasteboard, and the floors and walls—to a height of 1.10 metres—were covered with zinc sheeting.

  From the first barracks to the second barracks, about which I have already spoken, there led an alleyway 3 metres wide of barbed-wire fencing 3 metres high. The side of the fence nearest the siding was specially covered with pine and fir branches, so that nothing was visible from the siding. From the second barracks a covered passage 2 metres wide, 2 metres high and about 10 metres long—led to the third barracks. Through this passage one arrived at the corridor of the third barrack which led through three doors into the three parts of the barracks.

  Kozak continued his detailed description:

  Each part of this barracks had on its northern side a door—about 1.80 metres high
and 1.10 metres wide. These doors, as well as the ones in the corridor, were sealed with rubber. All the doors in this barrack opened outwards. The doors were very strong—constructed of planks 75mm thick and fastened from the outside by a wooden bar which fitted into two iron hooks.

  In each of the three parts of this barrack there was fixed at a height of 10cms from the floor, a waterpipe. The waterpipe branched from each corner along the western wall of each part of this barrack to the middle of the wall, and ended in an opening at a height of 1 metre from the floor. These waterpipes were joined to a main pipe at a junction under the floor.

  In each of the three parts of the above—mentioned barracks were placed stoves weighing 250 kilos. One must surmise that the waterpipes were later connected to these stoves. The stoves were 1.10 metres high, 55 cm wide and 55 cm long. Out of curiosity, I glanced into the stove through the open door. I did not see any grate there. The interior of the stove was—so it seemed—lined with firebrick. I could not ascertain what the other stoves were like. The stove opening was oval, with a diameter of about 25cm, and about 50cm above the floor.

  Along the northern side of this barrack a 1 metres high ramp made of planks was errected and along this ramp a narrow- gauge railway track was laid which led to the grave right in the noth east corner which had been dug by the ‘Blacks.’ This grave was dug by 70 ‘Blacks’ ..... it was 6 metres deep, 20 metres wide and 50 metres long. This was the first grave in which the Jews killed in the death camp were buried. The ‘Blacks’ dug this grave in 6 weeks, during the time we were building the barracks. This grave was later extended to the middle of the northern boundary.

  The first of these barracks I mentioned lay 20 metres from the siding and 100 metres from the southern boundary. At that time, when we Poles were building these barracks, the ‘Blacks’ erected the fencing around the death camp, which consisted of wooden posts between which was strung barbed-wire.

  After we had built the aforementioned three barracks, the Germans released us from our work on 22 December 1941. As far as I remember, in January or February 1942, the Germans built three watchtowers around the camp. Further building work in the camp was carried out by Jews under German supervision.

  The western, northern and eastern borders of the camp were planted with big fir trees and pines to hide the interior of the camp. The camp was divided—from east to west—in three parts. In the first part were the Jews employed in burying the corpses of the murdered Jews; in the second part—the sorting of the clothing and other belongings of the Jews; and the third part—those employed in working in the camp (even outside the camp).

  I know that the Germans baked 500 loaves of bread a day, sometimes more—for the Jews employed in the camp. These Jews were employed in the camp the whole time it was in operation. At the moment of the disbandment of the camp these Jews were taken away by train in the direction of Rejowiec.

  Before the New Year of 1942, the Germans brought about 70 Jews in lorries from Lubycza (Krolewska) and Mosty. The ‘Blacks’ explained that these Jews had worked for two weeks and then been killed in the camp without saying how. [42] [43]

  Belzec death camp was tiny, when compared to other extermination centres like Auschwitz-Birkenau, the north, west, and east sides each measuring 275 meters, and the south side 265 meters. It was built on a partly forested sandy ridge known as Kozielsk Hill. Three watchtowers were built at the corners of the camp, two on the east side, and a third at the southwest corner.

  A railroad spur originally laid by the Oberschlesische Holzindustrie (Upper Silesian Timber Company) entered the camp area at the northwest corner via a sturdy wooden gate and a nearby wooden guard house. Belzec was in fact divided into two: Camp I, in the northern and western part was the reception area, included the ramp that could hold twenty cattle wagons, the assembly square for the Jewish deportees, and the undressing and storage barracks. Camp I also housed the administration area, which had two barracks that housed the Jewish prisoners. This area also included the roll-call square and the laundry, kitchen, and other barracks for storage. To the left of the entrance gate already mentioned was the Trawnikimänner area, which included their living quarters, a kitchen, plus their clinic, dentist, and barber.

  Camp II, the so-called extermination area, included the three gas chambers and the mass graves, which were in the east and northeast areas of the camp. The gas chambers were surrounded by trees, and a camouflage net was placed over the roof to prevent observation from low-flying aeroplanes. As time went by, two barracks were erected in this area for the Jewish work brigades’ living quarters and kitchen. Camp II was segregated off from Camp I by barbed wire fences with a heavily guarded entrance gate.[44]

  The undressing barracks in Camp I was connected to the extermination area by the so-called Schlauch (tube), some 2-meters-wide and 100-meters-long passageway enclosed on both sides by camouflaged barbed wire fences. The naked, doomed Jews passed through this passage way which led directly to the gas chamber facility.

  The three gas chambers were etremely primitive, as have been described above, each chamber measuring 6 by 4 meters, and had a maximum capacity of 240 people in each chamber. The three chambers was constructed on concrete foundations and, after the gassing had taken place, the bodies were unloaded through the three doors at the rear of the chambers and transferred to the mass graves, using a narrow-gauge railway with tip-up trucks, though this method was later discarded.[45]

  In Belzec village, two well-built stone houses near the station on Tomaszowska Street, were requisitioned from the Ostbahn (Eastern Railways), one of which served as Christian Wirth’s Kommandantur—his office and living quarters—while the other house served as the living quarters for a number of the SS garrison. A third building, a peasants cottage adjacent to the Kommandantur, was requisitioned as the death camps general office. Next to the cottage, at the rear of the Kommandantur was an armoury. At the rear of the building that housed the SS garrison was a small stable. The complex was surrounded by a wooden fence and barbed-wire, with the exception of the roadside area, which was manned round-the clock by armed sentries.[46]

  Some historical accounts claim that Richard Thomalla, from the Waffen-SS Bauleitung Zamosc, at General Drescher Straße 34, who built the Aktion Reinhardt camps at Sobibor and Treblinka, was involved at the commencement of construction in Belzec on November 1, 1941. However, this is unlikely as he was in Russia during this time as part of the constructing “SS Strongpoints in the East” program, which was under the control of Odilo Globocnik in Lublin. The British Intelligence Service at Bletchley Park intercepted and decoded German police messages using a replica Enigma machine, provided to them by the Poles.[47] Messages sent to Thomalla at Zwiahel on November 21, 1941, would seem to exclude him from overseeing the early stages of the construction of the death camp in Belzec. Of some note is that other key members of Globocnik’s staff, such as Hermann Dolp and Kurt Claasen in Minsk, Hermann Höfle in Minsk and Mogilev, and Georg Michalsen in Riga, were also employed on the “Strongpoints in the East” construction projects.[48]

  On his return to Lublin in early 1942, he was involved in the latter stages of construction at Belzec, and there can be no doubt he supervised from the start the construction of the other two death camps that formed part of Aktion Reinhardt, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

  Chapter IV

  Recruitment into Aktion Reinhardt:

  T4 & Trawniki

  T4 was the name of a secret organization, named after its address in Berlin, Tiergartenstraße 4, and this organization was part of the Führer’s Chancellery. The T4 organization established several institutions throughout the Reich that murdered mentally ill and disabled men, women, and children by means of gassing by carbon monoxide and lethal injections.[49]

  Kurt Hubert Franz was a member of T4, as well as serving as a concentration camp guard at Buchenwald, and during his interrogation in Düsseldorf on December 30, 1959, he provided a detailed account of the T4 recruitment process, and subsequent
service in the death camps of Aktion Reinhardt. This account has not been altered:

  I was raised in Dusseldorf, and here I went to the primary school. Then I first worked as an errand boy at the firm Peter Holters, Factory of Fine Food. Then I completed a 3 year long apprenticeship as a cook at the Wittelsbacher Hof. The apprenticeship time began at one Hirschquelle Bar, which had to close after approximately one year, meaning I had to stop, because the owner changed.

  After working for a short time as a young cook in Dusseldorf, I came to a working service camp in Ratingen, organized by the Stahlhelm on a voluntary basis. There I first worked in the kitchen, but later I also fulfilled normal work service. At the end I was Gruppenführer. I was not only in Ratingen in the working service, but also in Heiligenhaus and Honnef. At the last camp this was already a Reichsarbeitdienst of the time. From 1932 to 1934 I was busy for about two years at the working service.

  In 1934 and 1935 I was a volunteer with the butcher–master Martin Stollmann in Oberkassel. In 1935, in autumn, I was drafted to the Wehrmacht. I fulfilled my military obligation at the Artillery Regiment 6 in Minden / Westfalen. Towards the end of September 1937 I was discharged with the service degree of Oberkanonier.

  In October 1937 I then entered the Waffen-SS. I came to the Totenkopfverband-Standarte ‘Thüringen.’ This unit was later called, ‘Totenkopf-Standarte Thüringen.’ The training period was for 6 weeks, but I want to point out that I myself was immediately designated as a trainer. At the end of 1937, my unit came to the concentration camp Buchenwald, which at the time was being built. My unit was designated for guard service in Buchenwald. The service consisted in that we performed guard duties on watchtowers, and that we were divided as guards, when work had to be performed by inmates outside the camp proper. The inmates were accompanied by members of the guard units, when they marched from the camp gate to their work places, and when they returned after work. During the work, the total object was surrounded by a guarding chain. In Buchenwald I was named a Sturmann and then a Rottenführer.